Checklist of the family Syrphidae (Diptera) of Finland

Abstract A checklist of the Syrphidae (Diptera) recorded from Finland. Three species of Syrphidae, Platycheirus modestus Ide, 1926, Cheilosia barovskii (Stackelberg, 1930) and Mallota tricolor Loew, 1871, are published as new to the Finnish fauna. Platycheirus modestus is also new to the Palaearctic.


Introduction
Adults of Syrphidae (hoverflies or flower flies) are mimics of bees, bumblebees, wasps and sawflies. Syrphid flies are active visitors of flowers for nectar and pollen and therefore they are important pollinators. The syrphid adults are excellent fliers and often seen hovering.
The larvae of hoverflies exploit a wide range of food sources. The majority of the species are predators and a large number of them feed on aphids. Almost half of the syrphid species are phytophagous or saprophagous. The larvae of phytophagous species tunnel in roots and stems of plants and some mine in leaves, but this rarely causes significant economic damage. Aquatic larvae are saprophagous in decaying organic material and feed on detritus or filter bacteria. Also larvae living in dead wood and in sap runs probably filter bacteria from the decaying mass. (Marshall 2012, Van Veen 2004. Only a few active Diptera researchers, Richard Frey, Wolter Hellén and Erkki Kanervo, studied the fauna of Finnish syrphids from the 1910s to the 1960s. They created a very good base for the knowledge of the Finnish syrphid fauna. Hackman (1980) published a list of the Finnish flies including 270 species of hoverflies. The beginning of the 2000s was an active period for faunistic research of the hoverfly fauna and the number of recorded hoverfly species had increased to 347 as the book on Finnish hoverflies (Haarto and Kerppola 2007a) was published. After that the knowledge has still been increasing thanks to working on the taxonomy and faunistics of the Finnish hoverfly fauna so that the distribution can be considered as well-known for over 90 per cent of the Finnish hoverfly species (Kahanpää 2010).
The Finnish hoverfly species were last listed by Kerppola (2013) with additions and omissions of species and with some nomenclature changes.
Identification: The Finnish syrphid fauna is best covered for identification by Haarto and Kerppola (2007a) and Bartsch (2009) although some species are missing in these books. Most of the species can be identified by external characters but some species require male genitalic characters for reliable determination.

Number of species:
World: 6015 species (Pape et al. 2011
Neoascia annexa (Müller, 1776) was included in the Finnish species list in Fauna Europaea (Speight 2004). Authors have not found any specimens or publications that reliably show N. annexa to belong in the Finnish fauna. Paragus punctulatus (Zetterstedt, 1838) was included in the Finnish species list in Fauna Europaea (Speight 2004). Authors have not found any specimens or publications that reliably show P. punctulatus to belong in the Finnish fauna. Parasyrphus relictus (Zetterstedt, 1838): The status of P. relictus is unclear and the type material is lost (Speight 2013). P. relictus was excluded from Finnish checklist by Haarto and Kerppola (2007b). Sphaerophoria sp. B was discovered as a deformed specimen of Sphaerophoria laurae Goeldlin, 1989. Temnostoma meridionale (Krivosheina & Mamayev, 1962) was included in the Finnish species list in Fauna Europaea (Speight 2004 (Zetterstedt, 1843) are known to contain several species Kerppola 2007a, Bartsch 2009a). Cheilosia barovskii (Stackelberg, 1930). A previously unpublished record. Five females were collected in 30.5.1937 from Ta: Sääksmäki (leg. K.E. Kivirikko) and one female in 20.5.2013 from N: Sipoo (leg. T. Järveläinen). Myolepta nigra (Loew, 1872) was erroneously included in the list of Finnish flies (Hackman 1980) instead of Helleniola nigra (Zetterstedt, 1843) = Chrysosyrphus niger (Hackman 1982 (Bartsch 2009b). In the Finnish checklist M. mutabilis represents either of the two species or include both of the species.